Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
Hospital staff and patients co-design a discharge process using EBCD methodology.
- Is an instance
A research team co-designs survey instruments with target-population focus groups before deployment.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Calling participant interviews 'co-design' without iterative design workshops.
- Not an instance
Co-design conducted after design choices have already been finalised.
Editorial commentary
Co-design originates in participatory design traditions (Scandinavian workplace research from the 1970s, design thinking, service design) and has been adapted for research and innovation contexts as the collaborative design of studies, interventions, services, or products with the people who will use them or be affected by them, integrating their knowledge and perspectives from the outset.
Co-design vs co-production
Co-design is distinct from co-production in scope: co-design focuses specifically on the design phase, while co-production extends collaborative authority across the whole research lifecycle, from question-framing through analysis and dissemination. Co-design conducted only after core design choices have already been finalised is not genuine co-design, whatever workshop label is attached to it afterward.
In Indigenous and community-controlled research
Where a project engages an Indigenous community, co-design is an operational practice that should be consistent with community-controlled research and, where a formal review step applies, Indigenous community review — conducted through processes consistent with the relevant cultural protocol. Where the co-design process will generate value from community knowledge or resources, a benefit-sharing agreement should be negotiated as part of co-design itself, not added afterward as an appendix once design decisions are already fixed.
Common methods
Co-design methods include design workshops, user-journey mapping, prototyping, and iterative testing. It is widely used in healthcare service redesign (Experience-Based Co-Design, EBCD), digital service development, and policy innovation, and is frequently paired with lived-experience expertise and Patient and Public Involvement in health-research settings.
What it is not
Calling participant interviews “co-design” without iterative design workshops, or running co-design only after design choices have been finalised, does not meet the bar — both are common ways the label is applied loosely in practice.
References
- Bate P, Robert G, ‘Experience-Based Design’, BMJ Quality and Safety 2006.
- The Point of Care Foundation, EBCD toolkit.
Also known as
Co-designed research · Participatory design (research)
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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